Burning problems with the DVR-104?

[SiCN]

I am really about to go nuts with my 104... Ever since I got it I've been trying to burn a successful 4.3 Gigabyte on DVD-R and it always seems to work. The burner writes and verifies and anything seems ok. Until I put the disc in the DVD Player (also Pioneer) and watch the film. Always at the end (maybe the last 200-300MB of the film) it starts to freak out, I get blocks and all that. Considering that I tried basically every single firmware Pioneer offered for the DVR-104 (even cracked ones to burn at 2x) I am starting to believe that it is a hardware fault on the burner. Is there anyway you guys know how I could check if it is a hardware fault? Oh yes, btw. the discs I used are Datasafe 1x Generation 3 (purple) and Bulkpaq discs. Bulkpaq basically sucked ass all the way (from the first to the last megabyte), but even so Datasafe works basically fine it's always those damn last megabytes.....

[jasonmvt]

My buddy has a Sony DVD player from about 2 years ago (300 disc changer) that flakes out at the last 5-10 minutes or so on DVD-R's burnt with the 104. His player, however, won't play cd-r's at all either. Although directly copied SS-SL discs that are copied in iso mode always work fine. Something to do with creating your own disc (adding individual files to a dvd) that the player just does not like. He has had better luck with DVD-RW. My sony is a newer player though, and it plays the flakey dvd perfectly, but also reads cdr. Anyway, maybe your situation is similar, maybe not; it seems to be more of a dvd player issue and not a writer issue to me. Try using DVDDecrypter's iso mode on a SS-SL disc, if your not already. Hope it helps...

[Brewdogg11]

All,
I also have the DVR-104. When I first started burning I had some issues, but were not the 104. If I burned movies using nero and fuji-film dvd-r's my PS2 read them all the way through. I have 30001 PS2 "first model". I bought a pack of cheaper dvd-r's at office max "khypermedia" and when I watched movies on those in the PS2 they would start to skip and freeze in the middle. I thought it was the discs, but turns out if it the PS2. I just bought a Sony 315 dvd player and everything plays fine.

[Xtasy2002]

It's probably the media itself.. I've heard a lot of stories about ppl who have had the same problem and it turns out they were using cheap media. Don't you have access to a stand alone DVD player (friend, parent, etc. etc.)? Try the disc on one of those and see what happens.

[SiCN]

Well, I've got two stand alones. Both Pioneer, and both work fine till it comes to the last 10% or so of the disc. The media (Datasafe Generation 3 DVD-R) were not particularily cheap, however they were cheaper than those enourmously overpriced Pioneer or Apple discs.

jasonmvt: I actually pretty much always do DVDs as they are supposed to, have tested a number of different burning progs as well, no luck however.

Nevertheless: How could I diagnose a hardware related problem because I just think it's too much of a coincidence that every single disc I burned under the last 4 or 5 months makes problems at the end of the disc? The only time the disc seems to be fine when the burner burns the disc and directly afterwards does a verification. Does one of you know a program with which I can verify the disc with another drive than the one that just burned the disc? For example: I burn the disc in my DVR-104 and then put it in my DVD-ROM and check if the files on disc are identical with the files on the hard disk? I tried FC (File Compare) but it always says that the files are of different length.

[simmons3d]

I've had problems with earlier media and my 104, BUT - since going with Ritek G3's, firmware 1.31, and Nero 5.5.9.17 there have been no problems and no screw ups near the end of my films.... This is all on 3 different players.

Good luck!

[Gristle McThornbody]

I too am having the same problem with my Pioneer 104. Most movies burned to the very end of the disc either skip a lot or stop completely. It only happens in the last 10% of the disc. I've used a variety of media, including generics, TDK, Imation, and Memorex. Also, I even tested it with another DVD-RW, the Pioneer 105. So, it's not the drive since it happens on 2 different drives.

I thought maybe it was the burning program, but I've used Nero, VOB Instant and RecordNow Max. All with the same results. I find it hard to believe that all of those media brands are bad. I would think that it's either a setting on my computer or operating system itself, or a setting within the burning programs.

Anyway, if anyone has any answers I'd really appreciate it because this is starting to get expensive.

[bartman]

Hi,

I've burnt around 30 or so dvd's with my 104 and I've found that the Princo disks I used are crap (g3 1x) and flake out around the last 30% of the disk when played in my Philips dvd player.....however....those same disks will play fine in my XMS player...right through to the end of the credits.

For the record, I've used 2x Legacy brand disks (that were cheaper than the princo's and came with DVD cases too) and they have worked withoug a hiccup yet (touch wood). I've also used Apple's DVD-R's...from a pack of 5, 2 worked. So price isn't always an indication of quality.

My suggestion is to buy maybe 2 or 3 of a particular brand until you find one that works...then go buy a spindle of 50 or something....

Bartman 8)